Nutrition Summit Signals New Era for Food System Advocates

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

On April 28 I had the honor of being a panelist at the National Nutrition Summit, a dynamite event featuring  national leaders and NGOs all working on improving the food system.

My biggest takeaway? We are in a new era. It's an era where we have the opportunity to partner with national leaders, grassroots advocates, and state experts all to make improvements in the food environment. I have never been in an event where there was so much support from the top down. Presenting at this event were the heads of the USDA, CDC, FDA, HHS and the US Surgeon General. This was an enormous moment, for the leaders of these federal agencies to speak on how their agencies need to play a role in supporting a food system that promotes health.

It was unlike any experience I've ever had, and it made a real impact.

I was left with a number of other thoughts:

• First of all, there is so much great work going on out there. Check out Policy Link's work at addressing the Grocery Gap. Or the awesome new resource by EcoTrust that connects local farmers to local sellers -- Food Hub. Or how about grocery stores that prioritize providing access to under-served communities like The Fresh Grocer. It's exciting to see all the innovative programs going on.
  

• Second, there is an active body of practitioners revising our best knowledge on nutrition and nutrition programs. There were presentations from the Institute of Medicine about the latest recommendations on school food standards. Or information about the latest market-based strategies to reduce salt from our food system via the National Salt Reduction Initiative. And my personal favorite was a presentation on the efforts to improve the quality of food in the St. Paul public schools as well as provide local produce.
  

What does this new era mean? While only time will tell, I do think that this national leadership means that local health advocates have greater access to national thought leaders than ever before. We now have the ability to share our grassroots work and support substantive policy change. It doesn't make our work simple, it doesn't mean that funding will suddenly rain from the sky, but it does make our work to change the food system that much more possible. 

Click here to view transcripts and video from this great event.

Comments

[Cindy]

It is heart warming to hear that maybe they are "getting it." Thanks for sharing this hopeful info. Keep up the great work